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Tobago youth ‘Reach for the Stars’

PHOTO CAPTION: Students of the Division of Sport and Youth Affairs TYPU-COM programme and their parents pose for a group photo after their graduation ceremony on August 20, with Administrator Cherry Ann Edwards-Louis, third from left, Director of Youth Development, Ms Praveen Bheem, second from left, Facilitator, Pearl Alman-George, left and Lavern Manswell-Clarke, Youth Auxiliary officer for Castara, third from right.

Youngsters of Northern Tobago successfully completed the TYPU-COM six-week programme hosted by the Division of Sport and Youth Affairs, themed "Reaching for the Stars and Achieving Success".

The graduation for this programme took place at the Castara Community Centre and saw 18 youngsters—both of primary and secondary school level—receiving certification for successfully completing the typing programme on August 20.

The programme took place at the Parlatuvier Anglican School during the July/August period where students learned rudiments of the computer such as hardware and software as well as basic typing skills as part of a preparation initiative for Caribbean Examination Councils (CXC) electronic testing in the area of computer literacy and typing skills.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony Youth Development Director, Praveen Bheem encouraged the young participants to continue pursuing their dreams.

She said, "Over the last weeks you understood that in order to successfully move forward in your lives you needed to equip yourselves with the necessary skills to ensure success and so you embarked upon the TYPU-COM programme.

"Learning to type on the computer placed you in a position of readiness for the future requisites of examinations in the Caribbean. We at the Department of Youth Affairs, Division of Sport & Youth Affairs also want to encourage you to continue to dream and reach for the stars which you see before you, make a plan for your life and set your goals to achieve that plan."

Lavern Manswell-Clarke, Youth Auxiliary Officer for Castara, explained that the vision of the programme was to better equip and prepare the young people of the Castara/Parlatuvier region.

“We thought about helping the young ones to not only know about the computer but also to be able to type, this will make their use of the computer more effective and efficient," said Manswell-Clarke.

The graduation ceremony closed with an overview of the success of the programme by facilitator Pearl Alman-George.

She said, "We live in an age where technology is a dominant phenomenon and almost every child knows about and uses technology in his or her daily lives, it is therefore crucially important that they learn to use it the right way because this saves time money and effort, the aim of TYPU-COM was to provide students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies to operate the computer and to provide a platform for the future and we were successful."